Homophones Hurt Your Writing: Is the Corpse the Core of the Corps? No....

Three more harmful Homophones.  

One of the reasons we struggle with spelling problems is the English language has borrowed and absorbed many words from other languages, cultures, and time periods.  Another reason is the order of letters on the keyboard.  Another reason is some people cannot spell their way out of a paper bag.  Most of us can spell quite decently though.
Looking at the three words above we see the first and third have the difference of only one letter, the "e" on the end of the first word.  Looking at the keyboard again, we observe that the "s" and "e" are neighbors on one common corner.  So, unless you are an Exceptionally Skilled Typist, it is not out of the realm of possibility to hit both letters at the same time. [Believe me here, I know what I am talking about because I am not an EST.]  If you wanted to type corpse because you are writing about a cadaver or body; bully for you.  If you are discussing an organization such as the Mercy Corps, then bad on you for the spelling/typographical error. 
 The sad part is the spellchecker on your computer is unlikely to flag that for you, because both corpse and corps are correctly spelled words.  We find ourselves facing the conundrum of context again: The right word in the wrong context is not the right word. To be truthful, context is king and if we do not learn his ways then we are the slave and not the master.
What about the second word?  I have finished my apple and must dispose of the core.  I hope we have gotten to the core or heart of this issue for you, in this edition of Words for Thought.  
We will talk about core again sometime, there are several words that rhyme with core: wore, tore, yore, fore, bore and others. Another set of homophones for another time.

There they are, three words with identical sounds.  If you use the wrong word the reader might think they hit an invisible tree root and lose the reading momentum you worked so hard to build.  Use every tool available to prevent that from happening, do not give your readers a reason to not finish your story. Use Word Refiner, beta readers, critique partners, proofreaders and editors to ensure that your work is error free and as smooth as possible.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this issue of Homophones Hurt Your Writing on Words For Thought.  Follow me on twitter: @wordrefiner, for more alerts about hazardous homophones search for  #HomophonesHurtYourWriting or #TyposHurtYourWriting on twitter.
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Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. 

​Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz 
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